


As Awesome As Kimbap and Soysauce On Your Tongue

by Noirfire



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Idol Park Chanyeol, M/M, Pining, Romance, ministore employee Byun Baekhyun, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:55:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25528546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noirfire/pseuds/Noirfire
Summary: Chanyeol was the biggest rapper star, while Baekhyun was just a plain mini store clerk with a scar on his face. And then there's Dara, a gorgeous new comer rapper.Between a ball of insecurities and a walking perfection, which one would Chanyeol choose?
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol, Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Kim Jongin | Kai, Park Chanyeol/Park Sandara | Dara, Wu Yi Fan | Kris/Zhang Yi Xing | Lay
Comments: 10
Kudos: 27





	1. Kimbap The Superstar, Soysauce The Peasant

**Author's Note:**

> This is an edited version of my old AFF fic.  
> Warning : bad grammars ;p

  1. **Kimbap the superstar, soysauce the peasant**



_"What's for dinner?"_

_"You can choose between frozen kimbap and crunchy ramyeon."_

_"Can I have soysauce?"_

_"For kimbap? No.."_

_........_

He took a deep breath and blew hot air to the cold surface of the glass door before quickly wiping it off with the pale yellow colored rag in his hand. Squeaky voice that followed, inducing an ugly cringe on his little face (small eyes twitched, thin and pink rose colored-lips bitten). It's been 20 minutes since he started cleaning the door like his life was depended on it, the glass door couldn't be clearer (he could even read his own name tag on his uniform, _'Byun Baekhyun',_ and also looked at his friend's moving shadow inside the store through the reflection).

"Hyung, the neonbox outside had been flickering since forever. Can you check it? I think we need to change the bulb or something." His friend, a well built guy, 182 centifuckingmeter tall, suddenly spoke with his clear heavy voice to Baekhyun. He was crouching in the aisle, hands busy arranging cups of ramyeons of all flavors on the metal shelf inside the 24/7 ministore.

"Sure." Baekhyun, who was casually wiping the now almost invisible ministore glass door (because it's too clean, one could barely tell whether there's a glass door or not), answered. He's done with the door anyway. Baekhyun yawned an ugly yawn before throwing the dirty rag into the basket and went disappear behind the storage door. Not even a minute after, he reappeared with a ladder and a new bulb box. A sudden cold breeze of summer night was greeting him when he stepped outside the stuffy little store. His shadow that glued to his feet on the concrete asphalt was like mocking him, disappeared and reappeared thanks to the flickering bulb above him. Baekhyun sighed and positioned the ladder right under the cursed neonbox and climbed it up after made sure for about 3 times that he already cut the electricity to the pastel blue box- '365' was written in bold and capslock- to prevented unwanted shock by the electric wave. 

When Baekhyun done putting the new bulb and closed the clear box, he felt a gush of wind on his back. It felt like someone was walking or running behind him. He looked around, squinted his eyes skeptically while pouting the thin lips, trying to find someone or anything that possibly moving, but found nothing. The midnight neighborhood was possibly as silent as a deserted place. Shrugging it off, Baekhyun finally switched the light on. The light from the neon box soon brightened up the whole area in front of the little store. A group of young girls suddenly showed up from behind a corner.

"Excuse me, did you see someone running this way?" One of them, a medium height girl with brown hair and clad in the school uniform of a neighbor private girl school, suddenly asked the flustered Baekhyun who was climbing down the ladder.

"No..." Baekhyun dragged his answer because he wasn’t sure. He did feel something, but he didn't see anyone.

"Urgh! Where is he?" Another girl asked in frustration, her red curly hair looked messy, and a huge professional camera was hanging on her pale neck.

Another small girl, with thick glasses and chipmunk front teeth, suddenly spoke in her high pitch voice, "Girls, I think he went that way! Let's go!"

And just like that, those girls who came like an uninvited twister, went and disappeared behind another corner.

Baekhyun frowned and tilted his head, amazed by what young teenagers these days randomly doing, _‘Shouldn't they already sleep save and soundly inside their own warm duvets at this time? It's school days right? Oh well..’_

He lifted the ladder and push the door glass open, while thinking about his _going to be ended shift in about 10 minutes_ and _what should he grab from the shelf for dinner_ (really, the perks of being a minimarket employee), but not more than five steps inside, he suddenly halted in his track when he saw Jongin- the coworker slash bestfriend- stood awkwardly in front of the ramyeon aisle. He was looking at something on the floor with a shock face.

_‘Oh shit! Is there a burglar hiding there? I knew it, there was really someone running behind me!’_ Baekhyun bit his lips. Frowning, he tried to get Jongin's attention desperately by sending imaginary telepathy. He couldn't just ask Jongin blatantly, what if the burglar got a weapon? Or worse scenarios, _what if there is more than 1 burglar with weapons?_

_"Yah!"_ Baekhyun hissed carefully.

Luckily, Jongin heard him at his first try, and the younger's eyes got even wider at the sight of Baekhyun.

_"What's going on?"_ Baekhyun lifted and shaped his eyebrows to form the question without really say it literally.

Jongin gulped visibly, raising his right hand and motioning Baekhyun to come closer. Have no other choices to do and too curious to denied the request, Baekhyun steeled up his heart and put the ladder on the floor before trotting his way down the aisle. When he reached Jongin and looked over the taller’s shoulder, two pairs of huge, round, and clear eyes were staring back at him from the floor. The one that caught his interest the most, was the pair behind a black rimmed glasses that belongs to the guy with sprawled endless limbs, wearing a stylish graphic t-shirt. The guy's hair was gorgeous light brown that reminded Baekhyun of sweet caramel, his nose was standing proud and tall on the small cute face, and the ears were wide like the ones that belong to Dumbo the elephant or Potter's Dobi- it’s cute.

"Shorty is mine." Jongin slipped the words carefully through his gritted teeth.

****

Baekhyun rolled his eyes. He take a look at the other guy in the floor, which was kinda short like Jongin said, and everything about him screamed _'little and adorable so keep me in your pocket forever',_ except the pair of humongous eyes. "Excuse me, but who are you guys?" Baekhyun couldn't help but ask.

Three pairs of _'really, dude?'_ eyes were questioning him, hard.

"What?" Baekhyun answered the unspoken question with another question.

Jongin blinked and so did the two strangers on the floor. "You don't know? But he's Park Chanyeol and his... angel?"

"I'm Kyungsoo." The petite male quickly squeaked, still from the floor and Jongin looked idiotically awestruck at the soft voice.

Baekhyun chuckled and the tallest guy chocked in his own saliva. "No, I don't know. And as long as they're not burglars, it's okay." Baekhyun shrugged and went back to the ladder before picked it up. He took a glance at his watch before continued speaking, "My shift is done, I'll take my dinner and get out of here."

When Baekhyun came back from the storage, backpack hung on his small shoulders, he grabbed a pack of kimbap and a sachet of soysauce from the shelf, not minding the three pairs of eyes that were following him in silence. "See you, Jongin,” he paused, “... and Jongin's friends." he nodded politely before leaving the stuffy store and three dumbstruck attractive guys.

..............

22 years old Byun Baekhyun is a big fan of original kimbap _,_ but he got his own unique way to eat it- _dip it in the soysauce._ Every Korean who watched Baekhyun's way to eat would cringed at the sight, and more often than not, they called him out about the weirdness. Including today.

"Yah! Stop it! Why the hell are you eating Korean food with soysauce?"

Baekhyun, who was munching his lunch at the kimbap stall near his rent room, blinked and lifted his sight to an old ahjussi that sit 2 tables away from him. The old man was frowning at him, a trace of chili sauce from his bibimbap smeared on the left corner of his upper lips.

"Yah, Lee-ssi, don't scare my loyal guess. Let him eat in peace." The owner ahjumma scolded the old man, because she's probably one of the few people (if not the only one these days), who didn't mind with Baekhyun's eating style (or she just want to kept Baekhyun as her regular for as long as possible). Whatever her reason was, Baekhyun still thanked her for that. He sent her a small grateful smile before focusing his mind back to his lunch again. This might be a little thing for other people, but for Baekhyun, it's one of the things that could made him felt insecure. That ahjussi, reminded him of his mother.

Since he was a little, Baekhyun always thinks that he's not perfect. How can he, when his height was only half of most of his (guy)friends' normal height, his skin was so pale that he looked like a sick person most of the time. He has tiny and feminine features (nose, thin lips, small delicate hands), and his eyes... his eyes probably were the biggest complexion that Baekhyun ever had. It was actually a clear pair of brown shades that almost resembled the color of sweet and warm cocoa, but then, there was this little scar above his left eye that he got on the last day he saw his mom.

Exactly 10 years ago, his mother was running away with her affair right in front of his eyes. She even gave him a reminder for his whole life that she chose the young and rough man over her family. Over his father. Over him. The scar was earned when he tried to stop her from getting into the cab and she accidentally- or not, shoving her luggage towards her one and only son's face to made him stay away. So when the cab was speeding away from the house, Baekhyun was lying there, bleeding and forgotten.

There was never a single day when Baekhyun didn't expect his mother to come back knocking on their door. Surprisingly and thankfully though, his father coped up well with the lost, so the father and son household survived for about 4 years after. But then, Baekhyun had to face his second lost- when the caring, kind, and loving dad of his, got into an accident and heading his way to heaven. That time, Baekhyun hoped more than ever for his mother’s return, because 16 years old Baekhyun could impossibly survive by himself. But no, of course he didn't get what he want. He just had to learn to live by himself since then. Juggling between school and part time jobs to get by because he didn’t have any relatives to lean on, he barelly graduated from high school. With all the misfortunes on his hands up till his senior years, Baekhyun started to think that the sole issue was actually lay on him. That all of the misfortunes were because he's the magnet that pull it all in.

Baekhyun stared to the small tv set that was hanging from the old ceiling of the little kimbap stall. A music program was being aired. Baekhyun took another slice of kimbap and dip it in the soysauce (ignoring a slight scowl that the old ahjussi was, once again, sending toward him). It was a performance of duo rappers called EXO or something. When the kimbap almost reached his mouth, it slipped from his chopstick, and Baekhyun couldn't even care, because what he saw on the screen was shocking him.

_It's the tall, lanky, but attractive guy from the store a couple of nights ago..._

He was rapping. His voice was sexily deep, shouting words fast and awesomely like a riffle gun. His hands were moving to the beat of the music. His stage's costume was far different from what he wore that night. Right now he was wearing a black leather jacket with six stars on each of his shoulders, a black shirt, black tight jeans that emphasizing his long legs, and a black scarf that was tied on his right palm. And because he didn't wear glasses, Baekhyun could see clearly, how that huge but mesmerizing eyes looked when they stared to other people. It's kinda weird though, because Baekhyun could see something _warm and special_ glowing from the guy's eyes everytime he was making an eye contact with his handsome partner in the duo group. Seriously the guys are tall like models and definitely good looking, but Baekhyun's eyes always ended up to the guy that he already met a couple of nights ago.

To be honest, Baekhyun felt a little bit attracted to the said guy, although he wouldn’t do anything about it. That's before he knew that the lanky dude was actually a famous rapper (judging from the very loud fans' screams along the whole song). Now that Baekhyun knew, he laughed at his millisecond silly attraction to the young star.

_‘Wake up, Baek. You have no time for a stupid crush or fanboying an idol,’_

............

The '365' ministore, where Baekhyun worked at, was actually located near one of the high end apartment complex beside the Han River. Everytime Baekhyun went to the river side on his 15 minutes break of the day, he would find rich people walking their expensive and rare breeding dogs while having a chat about business through their earphones. More often than not, he even met some celebrities- or people who looked like them (Baekhyun's not that sure). But, he could positively said that the Park Jisung with the girl that he saw a couple of nights ago, was really the famous soccer player himself. And the news on the next day definitely seconded him on that.

The dark Han River at night didn't make it any less pretty, instead it became more gorgeous with all the city lights around reflected to the dark water. There's a large ship for Han River romantic cruise with lots of colorful bulbs that made it even merrier. There were also some old ahjussi that went around with huge plastic bag, selling fireworks for the night admirers of the river. Baekhyun already contented enough from his usual bleacher, frozen kimbap, and soysauce on his hands for dinner. He got himself a salmon filled kimbap today, so eventhough it's frozen, it's still smelled good enough for his appetite. He was about to eat his second piece of kimbap when he heard a scream from behind.

**_"Yah, stop! Get back here you, brat! Yah! Listen to me! Noo! Don't go there! Yah, orange person move away!"_ **

Baekhyun frowned, _‘_ _what's with the commotions?_ _’_ ’ He looked over his shoulder to see what happen and saw a guy was moving his arms crazily and doing wild gestures while running to his direction. He tilted his head in confusion, and suddenly realized that he was wearing his orange ministore uniform when a puffy bullet was flying to his stomach and dragged him down with it.

"Ouch.." Baekhyun groaned when the said fluffy things was still perched on his little body while wetting his face. He couldn't open his eyes because of it.

"Yah! Get off of him!" A sudden bariton voice filled his hearing sense up and the heavy weight on his chest was gone in a second. "Oh my God, you killed him!"

Baekhyun opened his eyes slowly and chocked out an unmanly shriek when he saw the guy who was standing before him, trying to pulled his golden retriever dog away from Baekhyun. He was too shocked to even care that the dog was eating his dinner.

"Panda, stop it! You’re a lady, don’t eat randomly from someone’s stomach," The guy was huffing tiredly while holding the leash that connected to the dog's pink collar.

"Ugh.." Baekhyun blinked and finally the person remembered that there's someone else there besides him and the naughty puppy- still lying helplessly on the asphalt because Panda was basically trapped him again with her half front body lying over the poor little man.

"Oh my God, I'm sorry. Yah, Panda! Move girl!" And the naughty puppy finally moved away from Baekhyun's torso reluctantly. "Here, hold my hand," the guy offered Baekhyun his huge palm and the former took it, although a little bit hesitant at first. Baekhyun could feel that the hand was warm. The tall guy pulled him up so he could stand back on his two feet. "There. Are you okay?" A pair of huge eyes scanning him from head to toes.

Baekhyun said nothing, frown formed on his pretty forehead, ‘ _He oddly looked familiar,’_

"Once again, I'm sorry."

Baekhyun didn't bother to dust himself off and just directly went to sit on the bleachers. He must be looked stupid, “That’s okay,”

"Ah, if I'm not mistaken, we've met before? I was barging to the ministore that night," A shy tone laced thickly on the deep voice as he took off his simple disguise: a dark face mask and the hood of his hoodie. The owner of the said voice, suddenly moved and took a seat beside Baekhyun. Their shoulders were touching with each other when he sat. His long hands following the dog's leash directions because Panda was running around and sniffing here and there before once in a while decided to come and sniffed Baekhyun. "I think she really likes you", the guy chuckled.

"Ah, you’re that weird guy in the ministore. Also a rapper from EXO," Baekhyun nodded, but his eyes were directed to Panda who was watching a beagle and his master running in a night jog before them.

"Wow, how did you know? But yes, yes I am." The guy somehow looked really flattered and amused, but Baekhyun didn't saw it because he's too busy looking at Panda.

"I saw you on the music program," Baekhyun hesitantly moved his head to take a look at the guy’s expression and immediately cringed at the bright expression of the guy. The already wide eyes, were widening even more, pulling Baekhyun in to the brownish depth of it.

"Really? Thank you. I live around here." The guy suddenly grabbed Baekhyun's right hand with both of his hands, Panda's leash tangled in their hands, accidentally drawing Baekhyun to pay his whole attention to him. Baekhyun visibly gulped at the sudden skinship, but Chanyeol seemed not to noticed it. "Hey, I wanna say thank you for not telling the fans the other day. Me and my manager, Kyungsoo, were already running around trying to dodge them like a failed plague", he chuckled. "Well anyway, I'm Park Chanyeol from EXO. Do you like our song? We're just having our comeback and my partner Kris had this new hairstyle and the fans are all swooned over him. He's charming don't you think? Because I think he is."

Baekhyun's usual little eyes grow impossibly larger at Chanyeol's sudden endless but friendly rant. It was as if he was talking to his old friend or something.

"Woah, your eyes are cute. I like it because I think it suits your petite face. What is your name? Wait, I'm rambling, am I?" Chanyeol chuckled with his signature bariton voice again while rubbing his neck awkwardly. "I'm not talking in a lightning speed because I'm a rapper. No. I just like to talk fast, I tend to talk fast. I think that's why I'm a rapper now. Wait- I'm rambling again," This time, pink color dusting his pale cheeks, along with a shy grin, a melodious deep voice chuckled, and a cute twitch on his left eye.

Baekhyun couldn't help but felt a funny tingling on his stomach. Maybe because he's hungry. This giant rapper's dog had stolen his only dinner after tackling him ungracefully to the ground. It got nothing to do with Chanyeol’s adorable rant at all. ‘ _Wait what?’_

"Oh, Baekhyun, I hope you don't mind if I call you that, because you didn't tell me your name yet but I read it on your nametag, and.. wo-wwoah!" Chanyeol suddenly being pulled to an opposite direction because apparently, Panda had found something interesting to chased after. Chanyeol looked over his shoulder and found that his puppy had running after a poor firework seller ahjussi, "Panda stop! Let the ahjussi go! Oh my God, Baekhyun I guess I'll see you around? And I think I owed you twice! Bye!"

Baekhyun watched as Panda dragged her excited master around once again, because Chanyeol looked everything but worried. 'Excited' definitely one of it because it's written clearly on his face.

_‘What a weird guy.’_

.........

The next few days, Baekhyun unintentionally searched everything about Chanyeol (and EXO). Surprisingly, he liked almost all of their songs, ended up watched all their live performances, and laughed at their variety shows. By the end of the week, he ‘reluctantly’ turned into a fanboy. He even went as far as borrowing Jongin's EXO cd collections and had to endure the younger guy asking (more like teasing) him endlessly, about the possibility of ' _Baekhyun fell in love at the first sight with Chanyeol that night'_.

“Whatever, Jongin,” he said with a roll of his eyes.

Baekhyun knew that he should do better than drowning himself and fanboying over an idol. These days Jongin even said that he's _'pose_ _s_ _sed'_ by an EXO fans or something. Moreover, he’s getting more curious the more he knew about Chanyeol. The guy had endless charms. The internet gave him almost everything he wanted to know, the musics, his likes, his dislikes, his hobbies, his age (surprisingly he's 20, 2 years younger than Baekhyun), and his persona on the screen (that he's way cooler than the person Baekhyun saw was dragged around by his dog).

Chanyeol had different personalities on and off screen. Chanyeol on TV was like the epitome of coolness, a highschool prince that seemed out of reached but that's the charm, a part of elite society beyond imaginations that came only to tease every people's dream at night and leave them with a longing ached in the morning after. While Chanyeol in real life was like an excited snow flake. It’s interesting.

The same goes to Kris, his duo partner. Kris is like a prince from foreign country, with his blond hair, tall nose, sharp chin, golden color eyes, and cute foreign accent (because apparently, he’s a foreigner). Both of them were painfully perfect, and Baekhyun couldn't help but think himself as an unworthy commoner everytime he watched the duo.

Baekhyun was not smart- heck, he didn't even go to college, yet, but it didn't need a genius (or a college student) to read between the lines or to put 1 + 1 perfectly. Not that it’s his business or something, but Chanyeol seem to had a huge crush with his partner, Kris.

_‘_ _Oh well, let's forget about that and work,'_ Baekhyun shrugged. He pushed the familiar glass door in front of him and was greeted by a sudden coolness from the air conditioner and two pair of smiley eyes.

"Oh hey, Baekhyun hyung." Jongin called from his spot behind the cashier machine.

"Hi.." A shy smile was sent by a small boy that was standing next to him. White plastic bag on his right hand. Baekhyun stopped and smiled back to him.

"Remember him, hyung? He's Kyungsoo, _Chanyeol's_ manager. I just told him how you're so infatuated by him these days." Jongin grinned a cheeky smile and Baekhyun torned between dug a hole to hide forever or throw a bottle of shampoo from the shelf to shut Jongin up.

Baekhyun cleared his throat groggily, "It’s not infatuated. I’m just a little bit interested.. in EXO." Unfortunately, the blushes on his pale cheeks were the ones that give him away.

"Yes, yes, Kyungsoo had his own eyes here to see the truth. A pair of big and beautiful eyes might I add." Jongin smirked his deadly smirk and Baekhyun swore he saw Kyungsoo swooned over that stupid smirk.

Kyungsoo sensed that Baekhyun was this closed to jumped and choke Jongin to stop embarrassing him even further, because he suddenly said, "Er, I think it's time for me to go back. The boys must be starving by now. Thanks for today Jongin, and see you again Baekh-"

Right at that time, the glass door was opened once again, and came in 3 attractive guys, effectively cutting off Kyungsoo’s goodbye bid.

"Yah, Kyungsoo what took you so long?" One of the tall man, wearing familiar black rimmed glasses, spoke cheerfully with Baekhyun's (favorite) bariton voice. "Oh hey, Baekhyun," Chanyeol smiled widely the moment he spot the smaller.

Baekhyun smiled and greet him back, "Oh hey."

"Did you just come? Your shift starts now?" The giant started his usual friendly rant.

"Yeah," Baekhyun then tilted his head and looked at the guys that came along with Chanyeol.

"Oh! I almost forgot. Baekhyun, Jongin, meet my handsome rapping duet partner, Kris." Chanyeol took Kris's wrist in his huge palm and pulled the taller male in front so he can meet Baekhyun and Jongin clearly.

"Hi!" Jongin greet casually, displaying his killer smile in full force. "I love your songs, hyung."

"Thanks!" Kris nodded appreciatively.

"Hi," Baekhyun bowed a little at the huge guy before him.

"Baekhyun hyung, you didn't have to be so polite. Kris here is younger than you, actually."

"Oh, really? I'm sorry then." Baekhyun, flustered, bowed once again toward the handsome Chinese-Canadian male.

"See, he's cute isn't he?" Chanyeol smiled happily, a row of white perfect teeth in display. He faced Kris with a hopeful face, “Now, should we stroll around the ministore, Kris? Like how we used to before our debuting time? I know you might miss walking between the aisle of instant ramyeons. Oh, speaking of which, do you know that ottagi had a new flavor? A mix taste of seafood and turkey or something...” His voice was decreasing as he was walking to the back of the store, pulling the flustered Kris with him.

Baekhyun huffed a deep breath and looked around when he caught another pair of eyes that were looking straightly at him. The eyes color are a little bit dark chocolate and it looked solemn and deep.

Baekhyun didn't know whether this guy was with Chanyeol and Kris or just a regular shopper. He couldn’t greet him with the usual ‘Hello, welcome to 365 ministore’ because he’s not wearing his uniform yet, and he couldn’t ask who’s he either. That would be rude. But, he couldn’t just leave him there too, because this guy was basically caught him in the eye.

Thankfully, a sudden voice behind him was helping him out.

“Oh hey, Yixing ge.” Kyungsoo walked toward the silent man and pulled him further into the store (because Yixing was standing right in front of the entrance). “Guys, this is Yixing ge, EXO manager from China. He’s basically my partner.” The little man smiled cutely. “He’s not that good in speaking Korean, but he understand well, right ge?”

“Yes.” The new guy answered shortly. He’s a very handsome man, with gentle voice, pale skin, soft eyes, mellow face, and pink thin lips. Somehow he looked fragile, but still, handsome. “Hello, I’m Zhang Yixing. I’m in charge for Kris and EXO’s activity in China.”

“Hello.” Jongin smiled a kind of smile that reached his eyes. “Wow, I don’t know that EXO is promoting globally. That’s cool.”

“Yeah, so we’re working in sync. I’m handling Chanyeol and every works in Korea and he did the same in China.”

Jongin, Kyungsoo, and Yixing were having their conversations when Baekhyun went to change. They still chatting when he emerged from the storage already in uniform. As if on cue, Chanyeol and Kris were also back to the cashier with lots of foods in their hands. Kyungsoo was gaping at them in shock while desperately muttering _‘_ _you_ _shouldnt eat too much instant food for_ _your_ _health’_ , while Yixing was just glancing around silently. Jongin was the one who count all the stuffs and scanning the prices: _three cups of ramyeon new flavor, three boxes of chocolate, three cans of cola, three bags of lay chip, three bags of candy pop..._

“Err can I ask?” Jongin frowned. “Why it’s only three sets of everything?” His eyes landed on Chanyeol, who was loooking back at him. Kyungsoo’s owlish eyes were landed on Jongin’s innocent face. Kris was looking at Yixing, while the person himself was still looking around the store like nothing mattered with the naive question, and Baekhyun was giving himself the liberty to stared at each of every person in the store.

Chanyeol sighed, “Because it’s _only_ for me, Kris, and Kyungsoo.” He answered calmly. “Now let’s go Kris.” He pulled the still silent Kris out of the store, somehow turning the mood in the store into a foul one.

“Am I not allowed to asked that?”

Baekhyun only shrugged when Jongin was looking at him. Because he didn’t know the answer himself. Kyungsoo and Yixing were suddenly indulged in an important discussion about EXO’s schedule. They didnt give either Jongin or Baekhyun any chance to ask anything toward them. As soon as Jongin was done with the counting, Kyungsoo and Yixing immediately paid and flew out of the store after bidding a propper _‘See you later, guys’_ toward Jongin and Baekhyun.

Jongin still frowned at the sudden odd atmosphere, but he shrugged it off a couple of minutes later. But the question still lingered in Baekhyun’s mind some moment after that,

_‘How about Yixing’s?’_

_..............._

It's been a week or so after the last time Baekhyun met Chanyeol and his friends. By now, he's more confuse of Chanyeol's real self. Was it 'cold' like his persona on tv? 'Warm' like when they were in the Han River days ago? Or 'neither of it', because what he did to Yixing- it was as if the guy doesn't exist at all.

Baekhyun was having his dinner at his usual spot, usual time, even usual menu, as always. He's too used to kimbap and soysauce that he didn't want to try other things. But seriously, crispy ramyeon versus frozen salmon kimbap? Of course, kimbap for the win!

That night, the sky was so clear and the summer breeze were doing a good job as his companion. Not so far from his bleacher, there's a group of youngsters having their bonding time on a picnic mat. The guys were flying their helicopter radio control and the girls plus two pretty foreign girls were having a chat both in Korean and English over bottles of vitamin waters. There's also a group of girls in school uniform, somehow they looked familiar to Baekhyun. He was watching them with a blank look for a couple of minutes before shrugging and paid his attention back to his frozen dinner.

He was on his third bite when someone appeared and sat by his side. A bottle of banana milk was suddenly floating in front of his eyes. Baekhyun frowned and glanced to his side.

There's a wide rich-teeth grin with a pair of warm smiley brown eyes greeting him.

"Hey, long time no see."

Baekhyun inhaled a couple of rice as his eyes widened in shock and get chocked as he saw Chanyeol, always so handsome, sitting there with him. Chanyeol panickly opened the milk bottle and shoved it to Baekhyun's hand, urging him to drink it to help him swallowed while patting his back gently.

"Oh my god, Baekhyun, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

After minutes of choking and coughing roughly, Baekhyun tilted his head to looked at Chanyeol, "Why did you always pop out when I had my dinner and asking for apologizes in the end?" he asked while wiping his watery eyes.

"I-I don't know? I'm sorry though, I really am." Chanyeol looked terribly guilty. He lifted his hand that perched on Baekhyun's small back after patting him earlier. Baekhyun winced super softly at the warm lost but he managed to look okay when he stared back at Chanyeol. "Are-are you alright now? Actually Panda was the one who found you and she ran to your direction but then suddenly stopped at the street lamp over there to pee on it." He pointed to where Panda was marking her territory minutes ago, but Panda had already come and licking his face fondly.

"It's okay” he chuckled. “Long time no see, beautiful." Panda barked happily at the compliment.

"She really likes you." Chanyeol smiles warmly.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes playfully, "Yeah, but she ditched me for a street lamp," both of them laughed merrily and Panda even barked to join the fun.

"So, I guess you always had your dinner here?"

Baekhyun smiled, a soft smiled that even the scar under his eyes get invisible. "Yep", he said while rubbing Panda's head lovingly.

"Really? How come I never see you before?" Chanyeol sat comfortably, eyes trained to both Baekhyun and Panda. Baekhyun gave a slice of his kimbap to an excited and ‘seemed to always hungry’, Panda. "You made me looked like I never feed you, you glutton." He chuckled while reaching and ruffling Panda's fur.

"To be fair, I never see you too," Baekhyun feed Panda her second slice of kimbap, "She's really a Korean dog, or at least a dog with Korean taste. I see she loves kimbap", Baekhyun laughed a small laughed. 

Chanyeol nodded fondly, mouth stretched into a wide smile, "She is, because she's Park Panda afterall." He let out a deep but melodious laugh. Round eyes disappear into a crescent moon shape behind the thick rimmed glasses.

Baekhyun heart skipped a beat at the sight of the warm and very down to earth star before him. Chanyeol looked so near and yet so far at the same time. Whatever he did, Baekhyun will never be close enough to reach someone like Chanyeol. It somehow made him sad but he tried his best to control his outer feeling and finally settled to a simple question, "Is this a real glasses?" He reached out, almost touching the black rimmed glasses with his own finger, but stopped at the right time and just ended up pointing at it instead.

"Hmmm?" Chanyeol asked with his large eyes following Baekhyun's point finger. "Ah you mean this? Of course it is. Well actually, it serves two functions, to improve my poor eye sight and to covered my identity like Clark Kent" he played his thick eyebrows and grinning like a kid.

"Okay, big star!" Baekhyun laughed and Panda once again shoved herself in front of his face and licked his smiley face.

"This is actually felt like a secret date." Chanyeol suddenly said.

Baekhyun looked to his other side and tried to fight back the blush that was threatening to appear on his cheeks. "That’s so random," he laughed. Trying to calm a sudden crazy heartbeat and wild butterflies in his stomach.

"You laughed a lot tonight and I like it." Chanyeol continued, added the oil to the already blaring fire. Chanyeol seemed so sincere when he's saying that but he really had to stop because Baekhyun wouldn't survive if he ever fall towards Chanyeol's charm.

"Stop it." He mumbled while casting his eyes down.

Thankfully, Chanyeol did as he asked and stayed silent for a couple of minutes, satisfied smiles etched on his face the whole time and eyes watching everything the Han River offered to him that night. It didn't last long though, because his eyes started to wander around and finally fall to Baekhyun's dinner: frozen kimbap and soysauce that had been placed in a small container.

"Did you always eat kimbap with soysauce?"

Baekhyun, who was running around in small circles with Panda, suddenly halted, "Uh, why?"

"Are you sure you're a Korean?" Chanyeol asked with his cute wide eyes widened even more.

"I hear that a lot. But seriously, what's wrong with kimbap and soysauce?" Baekhyun frowned and asked him back.

"Nothing, I guess. It's just not recommended, right? But of course you could eat it the way you want,"

Baekhyun's frowned get even deeper, "That's right. I could." he shrugged and played again with Panda.

"Oh hey, Baekhyun? Can I left Panda for a moment with you? I need to go to the rest room," Chanyeol casted a shy smile.

"Well, sure.." He took a glanced to his watch, "I have like 5 more minutes before my break is over."

"Okay, I'll be super fast then."

_‘_ _O_ _kay..’_ Baekhyun mumbled to himself as he watched Chanyeol running to the rest room direction. Suddenly, he felt like something was hurting the back of his head. "Ouch," he turned around and found the school girls in uniform were the ones who were throwing little pebbles to his head.

"Hey, uglay! Stay away from Chanyeol oppa!"

"What?"

"Don't you know? You're just a short ministore employee. You're not worth enough to be with our oppa. What? You think this is a secret date? Don't make us laugh." The familiar glasses girl with a chipmunk front teeth spoke.

_'Ah they're the fangirls from days ago.'_

"The one that should be with Chanyeol oppa is Kris oppa. They're _Krisyeol,_ a matchmade in heaven!" A red curly hair girl stepped forward and throw another pebbles toward Baekhyun.

The brown haired girl flash a little flash light, "Look at how ugly he is. Wow, he even got a scar above his eyes. He'll never be good looking enough for anybody then." She laughed wholeheartedly, followed by her friends.

Panda, who saw Baekhyun flinched in hurt, barked angrily toward the mean girls. Actually, it's not the physical hurt that made Baekhyun flinched, it's the truth behind the girl's words. That he's a no one, would never be good enough for anybody, moreover someone like Chanyeol.

"I kno.."

"Hey Panda, come here girl! Don't be with that ugly thing." The girl who always had her curly hair messy, called for Panda. She was holding a huge unlighted fireworks in her hand.

Baekhyun look at Panda sadly, but he surprised that Panda was actually barking in displeased. She looked like she was almost attacking the girls instead. "Hey, Panda, don't do that," Baekhyun reached for Panda's collar and tried to calm her. But Panda had her own thought and seemed like she was ready to launched and bite them any seconds now.

"What's wrong with Panda? Is she already brainwashed by the monster?" One of them trembled in fright.

"No, don't come here dog. Bad doggie! Bad dog!" 

Panda was about to jump when the curly hair girl screamed, "Stop it! Hold that beast or I shoot her with my firework!" She got ready to lighting up the firework with a match in her hand.

Baekhyun looked at her in shocked, "No, don't do that to Panda, please. Panda, calm down girl." But Panda kept barking scarily towards the girl.

"Get away from her, or I'll shoot you too! The dog is crazy."

"No!" Baekhyun launched himself towards the curly hair girl, trying to take away her fireworks, but she was struggling hardly and her friends help her to pushed Baekhyun away. Unfortunately, they were pretty near the river bank by now, so when Baekhyun lost his footing, because his body was actually almost as small as a girl's body, he fell to the water in a huge splash.

_"Baek!"_

_.............._


	2. The Soysauce's Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the late update. I hope you can enjoy this one :))

  1. **_The Soysauce's Dream_**



Baekhyun panted, he tried to float himself but it's difficult to do since he's fully clothed. Baekhyun was not a good swimmer. The jeans was so heavy, it kept pulling him down. His converse didn't do any help either.

**_"What did you do to Baekhyun?"!_ **

Between his hard pants, Baekhyun heard Chanyeol was screaming angrily to the girls, while Panda was barking softly to him. She’s probably trying to encourage him who was struggling to get to the side. He kept paddling and pushing himself forward, albeit so slowly but surely. When finally he reached the edge of the river bank, Panda barked a soft cry then biting his right sleeve, trying to drag him to the land.

**_"Oppa, you're scary.."_ **

The girls' voices were weak, laced in fright. Baekhyun looked up just in time when Chanyeol looked to the side worriedly and their glances locked. The worried and scared face of Chanyeol when he saw Baekhyun, soon turned into red in raged when he faced the girls again, "Go away before I call the police!"

Something tugged Baekhyun's inner when he saw Chanyeol threatened the squirming girls. They have no other choice except following what Park Chanyeol told them to do. They were running away in tears, but Chanyeol didn't even spared them a second glance. Instead, he ran to the exactly opposite direction, where Panda and the drenched Baekhyun were. He crouched and help to pull the little male up before fell down on his own ass beside the exhausted Baekhyun. Panda came to her master and licked his pale face.

"Good girl, thank you Panda." Chanyeol patted the loyal dog's head. "God, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Baek. Are you okay?" He frowned sadly, hands reaching for Baekhyun's arm gently.

Baekhyun shook his head- still felt light headed because he just imagining that Park Chanyeol was scolding his fans for him, "Well, I'm ookka-aaachhooo!"

"Oh my.. Let's go home!"

_............._

Baekhyun sat, save and warm on the black couch in front of a huge screen flat tv- a rerun music show on screen- wrapped in a thick and heavy cocoon made of five Chanyeol's blankets. He was wearing Chanyeol's spare clothes too, an oversized t-shirt and a Nemo pajama bottom, that smells very much like the owner. Chanyeol's fragrance thickling his olfactory, and he ridiculously remembered the scene of a cliche romantic movie.

The giant star came in, guilt reflected in his glasses, and hot chocolate on both hands. He put the cups on the coffee table and sat comfortably beside Baekhyun. "Once again, I'm sorry Baek. I dont-" Baekhyun's chuckles suddenly cut his sorry pleas and the handsome rapper blinked rapidly.

"Can you imagined how rich I am right now if I got 1000 won for your each and every apologies? I've told you to cut it off." His bubbly laugh filling up the wide and white living room. Baekhyun then smiled reassuringly, "I'm okay, really Chanyeol" Chanyeol's pout induced another light chuckle from him.

Chanyeol sighed and continued, "Anyway, I'm sorry I could only make you this." He gestured his hands toward the still steaming hot cups of cocoa on the coffee table, but then his eyes widened and a big hand come to covering his lips when he saw Baekhyun just cocking up his eyebrows at another Chanyeol's apology. "Uh, well, sorr- _uh_ Kyungsoo was actually the chef here. He could make you everything, but he's not here, because he's at your workplace right now- explaining everything to Jongin.. uhh which actually could be done by phone but..yea.." he frowned, "And I can't give you anything to eat either because he already dumped all the junk foods- my snack, my money and basically the source of my fun- to the trash bin, insisting that he'll cook for us instead, just like a nagging little mom."

Baekhyun let out a soft laugh, "That's because he cares about you guys a lot"

"Yeah, he is." Chanyeol smiled warmly. It's clear that the giant had a soft little spot in his heart for his petite manager. "I'm rambling too much again, am I not?" he winced at his own question.

Baekhyun shrugged while sipping the cocoa from the blue cup, "Well, to be honest I think it's cute." He commented without thinking. But when the naïve words sipped into their minds, both of them froze. Baekhyun stuttered when he saw Chanyeol's red ears, _'shit',_ his eyes widened in realization.

The giant nodded, "Well, I'll take that as a compliment."

"Sure", Baekhyun mumbled softly. He bit his lower lips and knocked his forehead with the glass on his hand repeatedly when Chanyeol reached for the remote and began flipping the channel. It was silent for a while except for the drama on tv. Strangely, it wasn’t awkward. Baekhyun decided to asked what’s been bothering him since a while ago, "Do you think your fans will be okay?"

Chanyeol glanced to his side and found Baekhyun watched his cocoa as if it was the most interesting thing in the world for him, "Hmmm?"

"You were screaming at them earlier today,"

Chanyeol looked like he was thinking about something for a while before he blinked and nodded in an understanding way.

"What if they hate you or something," Baekhyun’s voice laced with guilt, right point finger was busy tracing the edge of his blue mug, and small eyes were fixed on the mindless gesture.

Chanyeol's eyebrows shot up high, "Baek, are you worrying about me?"

"Well, of course," _I think of you as a friend, somehow?_

The star before him flashed his wide smile, all teeth visible, that's how he earned the _teethrich_ nickname anyway, and suddenly reached out to pat Baekhyun's fluffy brunet head, "I'm honoured."

_............._

They were waiting for dinner delivery because Chanyeol insisted to order hawaian pizza and cola to sealed their newfound friendship and Baekhyun didn't get to finish his dinner because of today's unfortunate events anyway. Eventhough Baekhyun didn't mind to lost a couple of his frozen kimbaps, the taller man said (with a serious face, as serious as the cute dobby face could get) that the smaller one’s a precious friend to him now, so he would make sure that Baekhyun felt his heart (as if putting his huge career on the line by scolding his rude fans for Baekhyun didn't prove his sincerity enough). Baekhyun couldn't help but wonder, how this nice guy would put himself on his relationship with his soulmate if he's already this sweet and caring as a friend. Chanyeol probably catch a grenade or jump in front of the train for his lover, just like the lyric of that famous song.

A soft bark and a fluffy head suddenly appeared, calling him back from his trance, Baekhyun might had stared creepily toward its' master, because then, a pink tongue made its' way and licked his fingers that still clutching around the blue cup of sweet cocoa. "Oh hey, girl," the brunet smiled, his eyes disappeared behind the pretty lids. He looked up when he heard a small bariton chuckle from his side.

"I think Panda's really in love with you, she couldn't leave you alone."

Baekhyun put his drink on the coffee table and leaned forward to hug her, because the naughty puppy had put her paws on Baekhyun's lap while head tilted to the side, asking for the brunet's attention cutely.

"She dumped me." Chanyeol pouted, white teeth hidden behind pursed lips adorably but still failed to gained both Baekhyun's and Panda's attention toward him, the duo were just too busy cooing each other. A sudden knock on the door was the one that catching all of their attention instead. "Ah, must be the pizza. I'll go get it and leave you lovebirds alone." He joked, while Baekhyun just smiled brightly and Panda barked happily.

There's a slight clicking sound and then the door opened even before Chanyeol could reach it, a majestic blond head appeared followed by a model like figure. "Hey, I thought I didn't bring my key, figured out I did," Kris chuckled as he stepped in and rubbed his shoes on the welcome mat. He paused in the middle of his attempt of stepping on his left sneaker with his right one to took it off, when he caught a not so familiar person in their livingroom.

"Good evening." Baekhyun, who clumsily stood in a jify when he saw Kris walking in through the door, pushing off poor Panda from his lap in the process, greeted him stiffly.

"Oh.." Kris acknowleged, caught Chanyeol who already stood by his side and gave the younger giant a sudden peck on the neck.

Or at least, it's looked like that to Baekhyun's eyes, because the shortest male in the room immediately sent his eyes away and looked fidgety all of a sudden, almost looked like he was wishing he wasn't there. He knew that Kris' eyes didn't left him at all though, the felt lingering and he tried hard not to be looked affected. 

But then he heard Kris' teasingly asked Chanyeol, "This's the first time you brought a guy home."

"Shut up." The younger giant pushed Kris off of him and somehow looked pink, the tip of his ears though, was cutely red. "Baekhyun is my friend. I invited him to dinner."

"I didn't say he's not a friend," Kris talked with a heavy accent and then pursued to talk the rest in chinese, which of course, Baekhyun couldn't follow. But he looked like as if he was intending to burn Chanyeol with his words- the younger rapper looked redder with each passing seconds and Kris' glances towards clueless Baekhyun.

Whatever it was, Baekhyun only hopped that they didn't talk shit about him. To be very honest, it wasn't looked like that at all though, it looked more like a brotherly teasing moment, but who was he kidding? Baekhyun felt (from his short life as a fanboy) that both of the rappers perhaps had mutual affections toward each other, they were just playing it nice in front of a stranger and a puppy.

So, he was shocked when a huge palm suddenly offered toward him, asking for a friendly shake, "Let me introduce myself again. This time I'll do it properly," Kris said in broken Korean, his huge palm was trapping Baekhyun's delicate and feminine hand. His wide and charming smiled was mode on. The initial shock was nothing compared to the one after Kris finished his introduction though, "Hi, my name is Kris Wu, I'm a rapper from EXO and also, Park Chanyeol's half brother."

_Oh so maybe not affection as lovers.. But an extreme case of brother complex._

.................

3.6.5 Ministore offered better services in order to win the competition against their neighboring competitors, they now provided delivery service. It's safe to say that Baekhyun and Jongin got their own fair shares of visiting the EXO dorm because Chanyeol and Kyungsoo were surely ordered a lot, especially at midnight, when EXO had finish their schedules of the day and were craving ramyeon or some random snacks, ranging from chocolates to ice cream (or 'fat food' in Kyungsoo's word). It's very convenient for their side, considering the fans never sleep, because it wasn't even months ago when they were almost swept by the crazy mob of fangirls in the middle of the night when Chanyeol was craving for ramyeon. That faithful night when Baekhyun thought they were burglars. The night when their paths across with each other for the first time.

Eventhough they met more often these days, Baekhyun couldn't help but still act extra careful and conscious in front of his bias. It's not everyday when a fan could come and go inside their idols' apartment freely and it's still hard to believe that Chanyeol, with extremely droopy and tired eyes but still blinding smile, always offered extra minutes to chat about their day or something as silly as some random variety shows new episode. But on some nights, when Baekhyun saw how tired the giant was, he could only smiled sadly, daring himself to give the tall rapper a soft pat or two on the shoulder and chose to just went home immediately instead (no matter how bad he want to stay).

It was on his sixth week as an EXO fanboy when Jongin came back (from delivering Kyungsoo his flour and sugar) with two tickets in his hand. It was for one of a music show where EXO would perform and Baekhyun couldn't get more excited because this would be the first time he saw Chanyeol's rapping live.

Jongin said they would need to learn all the fanchants, a lightstick to wave, and EXO's newest album to get their signs.

Baekhyun said that Jongin would need a substitute that can fill up his shift as the ministore clerk when they went to see EXO.

At that time, the tanned walking pheromone was only laughing, perfectly displaying his set of white teeth, while waving his huge hand in a dismissing gesture. Baekhyun could see why on the day of the music show. A guy that looked so much like Jongin from head to toes, only didn't as tan as him, was suddenly walking in with Jongin to the store. Jongin brought his fucking breathing replica.

"Hyung, this's Taemin, my twin."

"Ah, hello." Baekhyun waved from behind one of the shelf that was displaying variety of popcorns with a flustered face. He had no idea that his junior had a freaking identical twin.

"Are you still in your uniform, hyung? Hurry up, we don't want to be late." Jongin whined from the door. The brat didn't even want to stepping his feet inside of the store.

"Alright. I'm going to change now." Baekhyun rolled his eyes as he heard Jongin's other 'hurry' behind the closing locker room door. Not even 5 minutes later, Baekhyun walked out of the locker room with his grey t-shirt, yellow hoodie, and black skinny jeans.

"You guys have fun." Taemin waved as his twin pulled Baekhyun away with him.

"Oh, yes we would," Jongin screamed back to his older twin without even sparing a glance back. "I paid him a lot. Almost putting my head on the line for getting a football player- Choi Minho's number for him. We should get the best time of our life." He added in a lower voice, only reserved to be heard by himself and Baekhyun.

.............

The trip to the venue didn't took too much time. They've arrived in a blink of an eye and the place were already crowded with fans. "Kyungsoo said he would try to meet us inside, but he couldn't promise though. He also said sorry because he could only gave us ticket to be in the middle of the standing venue, not too close to the stage but also not too far."

"I wouldn't complain. It's free," Baekhyun shrugged and smiled.

"You're right. It would be hard for us to get inside if not because of him. With all the shitty regulations the fanclub had, we would need membership card, passwords, official stuffs, it's a fucking endless list." Jongin had to raise his volume up a bit and leaned forward toward his smaller hyung. The both of them were standing in line before the huge studio door that was supposed to be freaking cold but was hot as hell because of all the shrieking and hysterical fangirls who were chattering loudly and endlessly.

Baekhyun small eyes widened, "I honestly would never know that it's actually hard to be a fans."

"Yea, welcome to my world." Jongin grinned while Baekhyun nodded. "Anyway, you think Chanyeol could find you among all the fans?" 

Baekhyun, who was taking a sip of the mineral water at the moment, choked heavily, water get inside of his respiratory way, the bottle almost slipped from his grip. "Wuut?"

Jongin chuckled while patting Baekhyun's back with a slight guilty plastered on his face, "Just asking, hyung. No need to be that worked up."

Right. It was just a simple question, right? Right! So why Baekhyun had to be chocked upon it and embarrassing himself in front of Jongin?

Baekhyun tried to glare at Jongin, but the runny nose made him looked silly instead, "You looked like a 5 years old. Gross," the younger added while making a face.

"Really Jongin?" Baekhyun grumbled while wiping his face with his hand and tried to wiped it off on Jongin's jacket (the bastard deserved his snot more than anyone in the world), but the younger dodged his hand just right on time.

"You know I don't need Chanyeol hyung to find me. I only need Kyungsoo's attention." He dared to add smugly to the pouty failed Baekhyun.

"Touche."

...................

It was a foreign feeling to be honest, but in a good way. How the dark and cold room made Baekhyun excited, how the white light from the fans' sticks glowing beautifully like ocean of stars, how they chanted EXO endlessly almost as loud as Baekhyun's heartbeats on his ears, it all made Baekhyun shivered and smiled widely.

The brunet felt someone's stare at him, he turned to his side only to found jumpy Jongin who was grinning as wide as himself if not more, "I can't wait anymore, hyung. Finally EXO would perform after this girl group duo." Baekhyun nodded, glancing around and found that EXO and this coming up girl group might be the most famous groups at the moment. There were so many fans calling out their names too. Based on a roughly count, there might be about the same amount of their fans at the studio right now.

2in1, a duo consist of a main vocalist, Park Bom and a main rapper, Park Dara. They said the girls were like the female version of EXO. Jongin even mentioned briefly earlier, that some of the fans might want to hook them up together. According to some rumors, Chanyeol even had a huge crush toward Dara since forever, but the younger only shrugged it off and said it's not worth the fuss. Baekhyun on the other hand, couldn't help but felt something tugged at the corner of his heart and left him with a not so good feeling which he tried to shrugged it off.

The girls were singing their newest song and most of the fans there were singing along with them, eventhough some of them were not 2in1 fans (because they brought other fandom stuffs). 2in1 wasn't a usual girl group with cute theme or sexy theme like those girl groups nowadays. They had their own charisma that were overflowing in their performances and a very special and unique charm that can pulled people's attentions toward them. Park Bom, the vocalist had a heavenly voice and she could sing each notes perfectly. She's not as gorgeous as her partner, Dara, but still, pretty. Dara on the other hand, was a perfect rapper, her clear voice could delivering each and every words fastly and divinely. Her eyes were round and big and cute like those belongs to dolls. Her cute nose, her baby cheeks, and gorgeous lips were all could be describe as perfections that every males on earth would have dreamt about.

_'Including Chanyeol.'_ Baekhyun thought in his mind, his hand unconsciously flew to the scar under his left eye, tracing it softly. The strange tug was poking his heart once again, but Baekhyun tried to ignore it, he bit his lower lips hard and shook his head, surprising Jongin who was standing beside him.

"What's wrong, hyung?" The tanned boy asked, eyebrows lifted high.

"Um, no- nothing." Baekhyun answered but refusing to looked at Jongin. Because no way in hell he'll show his flustered face to Jongin, the guy might be young, but he could read really well. And getting caught by Jongin would probably the last thing that he needed right now.

Jongin frowned but then nodded silently, "Anyway, finally, it's EXO time nooooow." The silly boy suddenly screamed when the girl duo walked down the stage. And just then, the fangirls were all screaming on the top of their lungs too, shaking the so called studio with their banshee- like shrieks, knowing fully that their patience were finally fruitful.

Two super tall males ran up to the stage as the MC's were calling out their name and greet the fans with their bariton voices.

"Ayy yooo.. Whadduuuup?!" Chanyeol screamed almost as excitedly as his fans.

"Wassuuuup.." Kris doing a charming wink and a salute pose with his point and middle fingers.

"Are you guys tired? Have you guys eat?" Chanyeol asked and the girls were all answering crazily at the same time that no one could barely made out what they were screaming about, but Chanyeol nodded kindly anyway while waiting and hearing all of his fans. He smiled widely as the fans' voices started to decreasing, "Nice! Anyway, this's our newest song. Thanks for coming here and I hope you all would like it."

"Here it's guys, OVERDOSE."

Soon, after Kris mentioning the title, the background music was heard and again, the girls were all screaming like there's no tomorrow. Normally, Baekhyun would wince and annoyed to death with such loud noise, but today, he felt happier when the screams getting louder and louder. He even waved his lightstick excitedly, following the beat of the song. The song was about a guy who had love overdose because of his lover, and Chanyeol and Kris were wearing tuxedo handsomely for this song. He'll scream too if only he had no shame like Jongin, but Baekhyun settled by just jumping and waving his lightstick crazily.

At one of Chanyeol's part though, Baekhyun had his breath hitch because he felt Chanyeol's eyes was on him. His eyes never left the tall rapper since the beginning of the song and he never stopped wishing that sometime in the middle of the song, Chanyeol could miraculously found him, and it kinda happened. It wasn't a flirty wink, not a long passionate stare either, just a nice and short of an eyelock with each other and Baekhyun felt like he could already fly to the highest cloud. It could be only a fragment in his mind, but he chose to think otherwise only for this time, because heck, it felt so good just to think that Chanyeol could find him among the sea of his fans. Baekhyun almost didn't pay attention to Kris at all ( _sorry Kris_ \- but Chanyeol was too charming).

The song was ended in a jiffy, even before Baekhyun could let go of his breath that he unconsciously held the moment he heard Chanyeol belted the first word. It was all too much, like every nice dream that always came to an end.

And just like that, the show was almost reach the end. All artists were coming back again on the stage for the closure, and the mc's were talking at the front while waiting for the scores for today's winner. It was a soloist that go by the name of K-Will that won today, and all artists went down the stage as the winner started to do his encore.

It was a super subtle move, a very little one that everybody in the studio could easily miss if only they didn't pay attention enough. But Baekhyun wasn't one of them though, because he clearly saw what happened almost at the dark corner of the stage. He didn't miss it because he kept locking his clear brown eyes to the tall figure since the moment he was stepping his feet on the stage for the closure, and lead himself to the back of the perfect lady named Dara.

Baekhyun didn't miss how Dara looked happy when she felt his presence behind her and also their shy smiles toward each other.

And Baekhyun definitely didn't miss it when Chanyeol's hand went up and brushed the back of Dara's neck softly, went down, and stopped right at her thin waist as they went down the stage together.

The tug at his heart that appeared randomly became a painful stab.

_And it hurts... Like a lot.._

...................


	3. Soysauce, Meet Rappoki

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for my extremely bad grammar. I'm trying to fix it along the way :(

  1. **Soysauce, Meet Rappoki**



Her doll like eyes were opened wide. Brown iris with golden sparkles looked back at him as the pink little lips stretch wide and beautifully. White and cute bunny teeth peeking shyly between the luscious and soft tissue. It was as clear as the cleanest mini store's window that the owner of the gorgeous face was indeed, happy.

_Off to Japan.. :) :) :)_

Was written under the photo. The owner of the account was very pretty and shiny and flawless and everything that a Byun Baekhyun with a scar wasn't. She's Dara, Chanyeol's not so secret _crush_ , who was also a member of 2in1.

Almost every single soul in the fandom knew. The letters in bold practically told the whole world about it, Park Chanyeol wasn’t being subtle about his little crush.

**_Exo_PCY loves this photo_ **

It wasn't only happened once or twice, so it's a far cry from coincidences. Chanyeol would be among the first ones to leaved comments on her posts and vice versa. Only dumb person who refused to acknowledge the flirting banter between the two who would say no- because even the blinds could read between their lines.

Lately, Park Chanyeol was quite active on his new instagram account. He posted handsome selcas or updating the fans about his new works (and also part time fanboying over 2in1). Baekhyun, being a devoted new fans, made an account too (like the rest of the fandom). It was amazing what a social media could do these days. It provided everything, news to photos or short videos, even blowing up rumors. And the latest rumor brought by a _digital_ little birdie said, that Park Chanyeol and Park Dara were _an item_.

Baekhyun blinked mindlessly, it was as if he wasn't in his body. Strange. The brunet's mind clearly wasn't there. His lungs felt like rubber, he wasn't even sure whether he was breathing or not. His small eyes were wide opened but he couldn't process what he saw. His ears were fine but it was as if he was deaf to the rest of the world but the rackety sound from the old and noisy air conditioner. It’s because of what he just saw and read through his phone. Endless proves that suddenly popped out of the blue: theoris about social media interactions, fancams, candied photos of them both that so undeniable. He wasn’t supposed to be affected this much to be honest. But somehow, he was. And he didn’t know why. Or refused to know why.

His mind was flying back just for a second as he unconsciously made a note at the back of his head to call the maintenance guy tomorrow morning because it's already passed the supposed aircon service's schedule, thus the rackety sound like an old bus ready for the junk yard. Involuntarily, his eyes went up and stopped at the mini store's clock. It was 10 passed 9pm. He supposed to get off the work already but yet he was sitting there, on the semi dirty tiles, pretending to have the busiest day of his life by arranging the popcorn boxes for the hundredth time (when he was actually stalking his bias via phone) while waiting for Jongin to came back from his delivery. Kyungsoo called, like almost 30 minutes ago, asking for 2 bottles of soda and a brand new mop with a stick. Baekhyun volunteered to stay, stating that the popcorn shelves need a better arrangement for a better selling while ushering Jongin to the door talking about how Kyungsoo would love to see the younger instead of him. And Jongin went away with a smile plastered on his face.

It was almost 3 weeks since the last time he met his bias in person. All this time he was successfully dodging all the duties to send orders to their apartment. Jongin began suspecting something’s fishy because of his reluctance but he never pushed it anyway because, _'hello, who was he_ _,_ _refusing the official invitation from his big eyed hyung in the form of house hold orders from their mini_ _store'?_

It wasn't because Baekhyun hate the giant now or something, but the last thing he saw on the music station, along with the flirting things going on in the social media, the _'crushing'_ thing and all the jazz, somehow made him lost all his courage to face his favorite giant. He couldn’t explain the weird uncomfortable feeling that was nagging him everytime he think about Chanyeol, especially now after the rumor’s out and he didn’t bother to find out why. Who was he anyway, just a fan and a mere mini store employee. Therefore, Baekhyun settled only fanboying through his account, eventhough more often than not, it hurt his heart repeatedly instead of making him happy.

32 minutes had passed from his shift and even the tip of Jongin's nose wasn't there yet. The little brunet almost hit his head to the popcorn boxes when a bell sound by the door woke him up from his dozzing off state and his younger partner appeared by the door with the widest toothy grin that Baekhyun ever saw on his face.

"Kyungsoo hyung asked me to go watch Dumb and Dumber this Saturday."

"Good for you." Baekhyun smiled, genuinely happy for his taller friend, because Jongin dreamt about it since the first day he laid his eyes on the cute manager. Dusting off his working pants, the brunet employee then stood and stretched his limbs.

"I'm sooo happy." The younger one twirled around in the crowded ministore like a ballerino. When his shoulder accidentally hit the popcorn shelves, and some boxes were falling scattered to the floor, it was as if he was hit on the head and his eyes widened as he realized something, "Ah, hyung, I'm sorry. It was already passed your shift."

Baekhyun hummed, "It's okay." He bent down and took the boxes, put it down swiftly to the place because he's been arranging it for like ten times or more that night.

"Hyung, just let me do it. You can go change and get ready to go home."

"Okay,"

...................

Baekhyun frowned, what on earth the universe had against him because it seemed like it kept pushing him toward something that he was dreading the most lately. 'Something' like a direct interaction with Park Chanyeol. Because, when he just got out of the locker room, Jongin told him that Kyungsoo just called and ordered two cartons of eggs. The tanned boy, 'naively', asked Baekhyun to dropped it off on his way home since it's on the same direction anyway. To ignore the request would be too strange and Jongin would smell his insecurity issue with his sharp nose anytime now. So Baekhyun just nodded, took the plastic bag with 2 cartons of egg inside that Jongin had prepared while he was changing, and pray to Anyone up there on his way to the apartment that Chanyeol wouldn't be at home. Or at the very least, please make Baekhyun a smooth talker just for this once.

It seemed like, the universe had decided that granted one Baekhyun's pray wouldn't hurt, so, when he rang the apartment bell, it was the petite manager who opened the door before him. Sky blue apron over black long sleeves shirt and a trace of flour on his left cheek.

"Good evening, Do manager. I got your eggs,"

"Ah, Baekhyun. Come on in,"

"Ah, but I was just here to-"

The petite manager opened the door wider, inviting him with no room for rejection so Baekhyun had no choice, "And please call me Kyungsoo." He watched as Baekhyun stepped into the foyer hesitantly and waited patiently until the same height brunet wear his guest slippers before heading inside, "Long time no see,"

"Yeah, the store is always hectic and Jongin is kinda jumpy whenever we got a call, expecting it was from you so-" Baekhyun smiled.

Kyungsoo chuckled knowingly, "I see,"

The petite manager walked down the corridor even further, and Baekhyun was there enough time to know that Kyungsoo was taking them to the kitchen, "What are you cooking?"

"You know that Yeol always love snacks, the unhealthy ones, because he has sweet tooth. So, I deciced to make him carrot cupcakes for today's desserts."

Baekhyun peeked at the half baked batter in the oven over the small glass window as he put the plastic bag on the counter carefully. It smelled really good. It's good to know that someone as kind as Kyungsoo always took a good care of Chanyeol. Speaking of which, he should go home before the rapper arrived, "Okay, I'll get going. Good luck with your cupcakes, it smelled good by the way."

Kyungsoo frowned and suddenly his expression turned happy, "Why don't you wait for a bit? The first batch will be out of the oven soon," he looked at Baekhyun and continued, "-and judging from your clothes, you're off duty already, right?" Baekhyun was about to refuse but the manager beat him to it, "The others are still out. They're having an interview with some Chinese medias. Xing is taking care of them. Chanyeol would be happy to see you here when he got back. He kept asking for you everytime Jongin came here doing his duty."

It was a pleasant thing to know that your idol was actually missing your absence, or if it was just Kyungsoo being kind, Baekhyun would still appreciate it anyway. Not everyday someone as unimportant as Baekhyun was being asked 'repeatedly' by someone as important as Chanyeol. Or it was mattered because it was Chanyeol who asked. Honestly, even if it was Kris who asked about him, Baekhyun probably wouldn't feel that flattered.

But again, getting your hope high wouldn't bring you anywhere, Baekhyun should just stop all these butterflies in his stomach everytime his and Chanyeol's name being mentioned in one sentence. Because there's a high and pretty wall named Dara that would be forever too hard and too high to climb.

"Uhm, I think I should just get home. Because it's getting late and I have to buy dinner, I-"

"Even more reason to stay!" Kyungsoo cut him off with a honey sweet smile. "I'll cook for you. I love to cook,"

Baekhyun's small eyes widened, "Uh, no. I can’t-"

"You see, Chanyeol's friends are my friends too. Unless, you don't wanna be my friend, Baekhyun."

"It's not like that, it's because-" '- _I have other reason for not staying. I can't see Chanyeol today, not now just after his scandal break out,'_ Baekhyun reasoned out in his mind, which wasn't do any help for his situation right now. "I-"

A jingling sound of keys was heard from the front door. Not even a second after that, the door was opened and came in three picturesque like guys. Kris and Chanyeol were looked exhausted, but Yixing was still as blank as he always looked. Though, the tiredness on Chanyeol's eyes and entire face was immediately wiped away when he landed his eyes on the shock small brunet in the kitchen door.

"Baekhyun!"

_Baekhyun's heart dropped to his stomach at the deep voice calling out his name._

...............

Everything happened so fast- one moment Chanyeol pulled him out of the kitchen, made him sat on the couch in the living room and talked about this and that, that Baekhyun had no recollection about. And around 30 minutes after that, Kyungsoo called him back to the dining room and a table full of late supper for five people was there. They ate and talked and ate some more. Most of the talks were about the job: their interview with the Chinese portals because Kyungsoo wanted to be updated about it, but Baekhyun enjoyed hearing anything that Chanyeol related so he didn't mind.

They were finally back to the living room when Kyungsoo shooed all of them out of the kitchen to started cleaning up. As if the whole universe still not done in teasing Baekhyun this whole night, everyone suddenly stayed clear of the said living room. Kris went to take a very long bath while Yixing went straight to his room on the second floor, leaving Baekhyun and his wrecked heart and mind alone.. with Chanyeol.

It was a very _'entertaining'_ night to say the least. Baekhyun really enjoyed Kyungsoo's food and the whole companies, he rarely had someone with him when he had his dinner. He didn't even stuttered for once, although it's because he didn't talk much that night, given Chanyeol doing most of the talking because he's just that.. _'excited'_ (as Kyungsoo said) to see Baekhyun. The statement induce something weird (like flying butterflies) in his stomach but Baekhyun acted all cool with no words and just a small smile.

_Good. Keep it up and no one would know your dying fanboy inside._

Looking around, to everything, from the cream rug to the hanging Optimus Prime clock on the wall, basically everything but Chanyeol, Baekhyun finally speaked, "I think I really have to go now. I have work tomorrow, and besides, you guys are tired like hell, I know," He was standing beside the couch before Chanyeol, therefore the taller disappointed expression was clear on his eyes.

"Can't you stay for a couple more minutes?" A shadow of frown and pout was crystal clear on the taller's face. His puppy like face was the one that succeeded to get Baekhyun's slight nod and approval.

It was worth it for Baekhyun, because he got to see the widest grin on the taller's face.

"This is like the best day of my life," the rapper displayed all his white pearl teeth, the stretched smile reached his eyes. "The interview was fun, I got a _'yes'_ and I got to see you too,"

Baekhyun blinked at the _'yes'_ slipped in the middle _._ He was too caught on that word that he didn't get the part when Chanyeol felt really happy to see him.

"You're like the precious friend I barely have," the wide smile morphed into a softer one, but the sparkle in Chanyeol's eyes were still there, "You know, in this kind of industry, it's hard to find people who really care about you. I believe time had nothing to do with our friendship because I can feel it, Baekhyun. That you're a very kind and sincere person."

"Ah.." There it was, the uncomfortable feeling now’s coming back in full force.

"And because you're my friend, I'll tell you this," Chanyeol paused, a giggle escape from his lips, "I got Dara to finally say 'yes' to me this afternoon, just before I went to the interview. You know, you must have heard about the rumor. Well, it's not a rumor anymore now."

Baekhyun gasped silently, his lips opened and closed simultaneously like a fish out of the water. Fortunately, the green couch wasn't far from him, so he reached out for the back of the fluffy seat and gripped it tightly incase his knees betrayed him and sent him down to the floor with his shattered heart in front of his love struck _bias_. Why he felt like someone’s hitting his chest with a hammer? ‘ _Because he’s my bias and I’m just too shocked,’_ his mind tried to reason out. Thankfully, Chanyeol found it as a normal shocked gesture from his friend and said nothing about Baekhyun's sudden 'fish out of the water' impersonation, infact, he probably took it as a positive reaction.

"That's.. That is c-cool," he pushed his voice out of his clogged throat and managed to smile a small one, hopefully it wouldn't look like a pathetic and ugly cringe or something. "Congratulation, I'm happy for yo- oomph"

Baekhyun was shocked when Chanyeol suddenly hug him and squished the shorter one in delight. The feeling was indescribable but he's sure he's about to collaps because shocking things kept coming his way since the first time he stepped his own feet in this apartment. He's been floating in the clouds and freefalling to the hell and soaring again, multiple times tonight.

"Thanks, Baek. Thank you very much," the tall rapper let him go and again, flashed his handsome smile that proven to get fangirls (and fanboys) all over Korea, if not all over the world, to swooned over him. He suddenly went to the hanger and grabbed both his and Baekhyun's jacket before took his car key from the jar near the front door. "Let's go dear friend, I'll take you home. It's too late already, I'm sure there's no bus around anymore."

"But-"

"I don't take 'no' as an answer, Baek," he lifted his eyebrows and when he saw Kyungsoo walked out of the kitchen, he continued, "Soo, I'm going to take Baek home with my car. You don't have to wait for me."

At first, Kyungsoo gaped like he was surprised, but then he said, "You're talking like you're going to stay at his place," Kyungsoo teased, a playful smirk pasted on his face.

Chanyeol waved his car keys and threw a retort, "No, stupid. It means I bring my own key. You can go and text your delivery boy _'good night'_ ,"

The small manager blushed but then rolled his eyes, "Don't give Baekhyun a wrong idea. Jongin is too young for me."

_'But he likes you so damn much',_ Baekhyun frowned.

"And you're the one who started it and successfully made him frown now," Baekhyun heard Chanyeol's chuckle from beside him and widened his eyes when suddenly a point finger touching the skin between his eyebrows. "There, the ugly frown is gone."

Baekhyun blinked, mouth wide opened, and Chanyeol's finger was back on his face, it was on his chin now, pushing his lower jaw upward and the small brunet just blinked while closing his lips.

"Seriously, why are you so cute, Baek?"

Baekhyun gulped as his reply, while Chanyeol chuckled and Kyungsoo laughed in amusement. His hand flied to the scar under his eyes, checking if it was still there, Chanyeol might not see it because he called him 'cute'. The tip of his finger felt the rough edges of the scar. It still there, but the tall rapper didn't care. _'Why did you call me cute? I'm not. I have scar'_ , Baekhyun secretly thought. Just then, the small brunet realize that the tall rapper was already in his jacket and converse, so ready to go.

Wait, he never agreed about Chanyeol driving him home. The last thing that Baekhyun needed tonight, was Chanyeol to see the small hole where he lived at, so he bit his lower lips before reaching out for Chanyeol's jacket, "No, I'm okay. I'll just walk home. My place is _near_ anyway," Actually, it's about 40 minutes walk but Chanyeol didn't have to know that.

"But it's so late already, Baek"

"Yeah, you hear him, Baek. Otherwise you and I wouldn't get peace because Chanyeol would terrorized your phone until you safe and sound on your bed, and he'll make me sit with him on the process."

"But, seriously-"

Kyungsoo suddenly walked toward Baekhyun to give him a goodbye friendly hug and gave Chanyeol a punch on his arm, before pushing them both out of the door. They heard the small manager locked the door unmercifully and looked at each other. Chanyeol shrugged while Baekhyun sighed. The tall rapper suddenly grabbed Baekhyun's little wrist and dragged him to the elevator. This was a war that Baekhyun couldn't win anyway, so he decided to just walk together to the basement parking lot, where the rapper's _Maserati_ parked.

................

"By the way, I didn't see Panda when I was there," Baekhyun suddenly remembered to the adorable furball that belongs to Chanyeol. A sweet female pet that loved to lick Baekhyun and cuddle with him. The cute not-so-little thing that brought Chanyeol to Baekhyun and got their first conversation ever. The brunet's mind was too hectic that he didn't realize the puppy wasn't there tonight.

"Ah yes, I took her to my mom's house. We're in the middle of promoting our new album, I even barely have time to take care of myself, moreover to take care of her. So I sent the kid away for a while," Chanyeol smiled a sad smile. "The house felt so cold and silent without her. I never thought I would feel this lonely without the silly puppy."

Baekhyun hummed lowly. A song from K.Will was played on the radio but it just went in through his one ear and out of the other.

"This is probably embarrassing, but I'll tell you one more secret," Chanyeol suddenly talked over K.Will's singing, "I chat a lot with Panda, that I'm sure at this point if she could talk, she'll be the death of me," he ended up with a deep chuckle that sounded melodious in Baekhyun's ears.

Baekhyun glanced to his right and saw Chanyeol was rubbing his supposedly un-itchy nose tip with his point finger, a faint pink blush decorated his apple cheeks. Seemed like the taller was just talking about something embarrassing for him, but the brunet genuinely thought it was cute. It was honestly made the smaller one wondered, what kind of things that Chanyeol told Panda about. Was he talking about all of his issues? All the problem at workplace, his favorite songs, his insecurities, or maybe even his crush to Dara?

Baekhyun wanted to know. He wanted to care. He wanted to help Chanyeol in anything, even if it means being all ears or maybe a trash can for all the tall rapper's problems. Hence, he started to talk even before his mind could think further about it,

"Well, you can always talk to m-" Baekhyun frowned when he was being cut off for the nth time on that single night, this time with a sudden and loud 2in1's newest song which happened to be Chanyeol's ringtone. Seriously, his patience for tonight deserved an award, The taller’s face became bright in no time when he saw who called him at time like this.

_Dara <3 <3 is calling.._

"Excuse me for a bit, Baek," Chanyeol beamed brightly in the dark car while putting the bluetooth earpiece on his ear. His point finger swept the phone swiftly and the smile turned even brighter and wider.

"Noona.. Yes-"

Baekhyun closed his eyes silently. He was too tired, spending time in Chanyeol's companion for only about two hours required a whole lot more strength than he ever needed to work two shifts in the ministore. The rollercoaster of feeling did a great job in draining his last strength and he really didn't need to eavesdrop the lover boy's call to his girlfriend right now, not when Baekhyun really wanted to be the person on the other line.

They spoke for minutes, Chanyeol's voice was so soft and gentle, Baekhyun didn't need to try hard to tune out the conversation because Chanyeol was speaking in a low voice already. But still, he couldn't help but hear pieces of it,

_"Yes, I have. Did you eat yet?... Was it good?.. Ah you mean the chocolate one? Yea I love it.."_ A chuckle, and Baekhyun slided down on his seat, pretending to fell asleep- and at the same time, trying to provide a space for Chanyeol to speak freely with his lover, it's the least he could do in such a cramp car anyway.

_"The interview went well, Kris hyung-"_

The small brunet was successfully tuning out again for some moments, focusing his ears and mind to the silk like sound of the song from the radio instead before his ears perked up when he heard the next thing, _"Me? I'm on my way.. Yes, taking Baekhyun home. I've told you about him. He's so cute and nice.. What? Of course I like him.."_

Another chuckle and Baekhyun's heart beating super fast and he was unconciously holding his breath, _"He's a dear friend of mine. And Panda also likes him.. Yes, he live not that far.. Anyway I'm almost there, noona. Yes, okay. You too, good night baby.."_ Baekhyun gulped at the endless endearment, but what really crushed his heart was the last sentence before he hung up,

_"I love you, noona.."_

It was a fortunate that he had his eyelids closed, head hung low near his right shoulder, because then, his lone tear that skipped from his lacrimale ducts, was hidden from the happy rapper. He couldn’t deceive himself anymore, the heart already decided for him.

A soft nudge felt on Baekhyun's left shoulder, he stirred slowly and rubbed his eyes (and tears) with the sleeves of his jacket, acting as if he was just came back from lalaland like a decent actor in the tv drama nowadays. When he looked to his left, he caught Chanyeol's soft eyes on him.

"I'm sorry," the taller spoke, "I don't know you're that tired, I kept asking you to stay and spent time with me."

Baekhyun smiled and felt warm when he looked at the genuine look on Chanyeol's face, "No, it's okay. That's what friends are for anyway."

"I'm glad I have you as a friend, Baek," the taller one of the two smiled back and drove his eyes to the road, "And I'm happy to have Dara as my girlfriend too. I can talk about everything to her now. But promised me don't tell Panda about this, she'll bite me out of jealousy," he playfully added at the end.

Baekhyun just nodded with a half smile as he turned to look outside of the window. The crack in his heart probably palpitable now, but he could do nothing about it.

_'Or you can always talk to me too, you know...'_

...................

Baekhyun could do nothing but be a good friend for Chanyeol. The taller rapper finally got his personal number and incredibly clingy when he had free time. He texted Baekhyun almost everyday just for the sake of it, ranging from greeting good days or just told the brunet what game he's been playing while waiting for his turn on the music station.

The tall rapper whined that he couldn't do it with his girlfriend, because Dara was also as busy as him if not more, while Baekhyun was just manning the cash register machine or re-stacking the snack boxes on the shelves. To be able to be there when Chanyeol needed him, was the greatest achievement for Baekhyun. The short brunet at the very least could make himself useful for his idol. Chanyeol nowadays probably as important as Jongin to him, if not more. Well, Jongin was one of the first sincere friends that Baekhyun ever had in his lonely life, so of course, the younger by three years male meant everything for him.

Recalling the night when Chanyeol dropped him off on his door, if the famous rapper thought that Baek's _house_ was resembling a rat hole, he did a great job at hiding it because no single words was coming out of his mouth after that night. Not even a disgusted expression, or maybe Chanyeol just didn't care. Because to be honest, working as an employee in a mini store wouldn't do to pay a nice condo unit when it even barely afford Baekhyun's everyday basic needs.

This was when becoming friends with Park Chanyeol and Do Kyungsoo brought good things to him beside the companions. The duo often invited Baekhyun to stay when he did delivery on his way home, always serving him delicious home cooked foods that Baekhyun almost forgot the taste of frozen kimbap. Even Jongin smile understandingly now, everytime Baekhyun went home with groceries to deliver and spring on his toes, knowing fully well that his friend would be taken care of by his crush and his tall employer, because Kyungsoo would always text him (even late at night) to let him know what Baekhyun did and eat at their place (while teasing the younger at the same time of foods that he missed because Baekhyun was the one delivering their orders instead of him).

It was another fine night, when Kyungsoo cooked kimchi fried rice and invited Baekhyun to stayed and have dinner with them. The night when Kris and Yixing decided to disappeared behind Yixing's door (again) doing only God knows what. Chanyeol pouted because he said Kris hyung was going to drink their old _chardonnay_ without him again. The night when Kyungsoo chose to scrubbed the kitchen counter clean while talking with Jongin through his speaker phone. And the night that Baekhyun was going to spend with (only) Chanyeol in their living room, not that he mind, really.

Today Chanyeol was extremely exhausted because the prerecording at the music station, and cf shooting were taking longer time than usual. They were also went for prerecording a radio show before finally got home after working for almost 20 hours nonstop. Baekhyun said he would go home so Chanyeol could have some rest, but the taller suddenly became clingy like a baby koala to the short brunet. Holding his wrist and didn't want to let go.

"I'm lonely. Nobody wants to watch movie with me," the rapper whined with his deep voice.

"You should go sleep instead of watching movie, Chanyeol. The dark circles under your eyes almost reach your chin," Baekhyun teased but didn't get up from the couch nonetheless.

Chanyeol pouted adorably and Baekhyun bit his inner cheeks so he wouldn't squeal like a fanboy that he was. Instead of answering immediately, Chanyeol was scooting closer to the short minimarket guy and snuggled to him, long arms linked and tangled with the short left one while fluffy heads burried on the short's shoulder. Baekhyun's breath hitched when Chanyeol whispered, "Then stay with me until I fall asleep, that's what friends are for, Baek.."

"To be a pillow?" Baekhyun asked as he was trying to get comfy on the love seat, while counting from one to ten to calmed his heartbeat down because it wouldn't be funny if Chanyeol ever heard his rapid heart.

"To be there when needed,"

"You need me?"

Chanyeol's answer was a soft hum and Baekhyun felt his heart almost bursted out with feelings but he managed to say, "Okay, I'll be your pillow,". He felt like punching his own face after that because he was too cheesy. What if Chanyeol thought he was making a move toward him? Flirting with him? How dare Baekhyun do that to a superstar?

Baekhyun's cheeks were hot. Mind completely wrecked because he was searching ways of how to erase those words that have been said. He also almost sure Kyungsoo heard it when the latter walked pass both of them on his way to the lavatory because the manager wriggled his black eyebrows as if he was teasing him. Baekhyun really needed the floor to open up and swallowed him right now. Like.... _right fucking now._

Chanyeol didn't say anything at his last words, instead, the tall rapper played with his fingers.

"Uhm, Chanyeol? I thought you're supposed to sleep instead of playing with my digits? Leave my fingers alone." 

The tall rapper chuckled then pinched Baekhyun's pale digits with his calloused fingers gently, as if playing with a kid's fingers. He took time in brushing and feeling each one of it with his point finger, estimating the size different by putting Baek's hands on top of his, then sliding the smaller's fingers between his and took a grabbed of it, "Your fingers are so delicate, Baek. Pretty and feminine, like those belongs to a girl."

"I don't know whether I should take it as a compliment or not to be honest," Baekhyun frowned.

"It's a compliment," Chanyeol smiled, "You could be a hand model or something," he trailed off, still admiring Baekhyun's hand in his. The shorter took a look at his side and saw Chanyeol's gentle eyes on his hand. It felt like a dream, his thumping heart wanted to jump out and soar up in the sky when the _'out of reach'_ crush of his, had that little adoration on the unworthy him. Yes, Baekhyun had finally come to term with his own feeling. Chanyeol is his _secret_ crush. Baekhyun thought this was the best night ever.

And that last for about three minutes before it ended when a petite girl with perfect everything walked in to the living room with a jingling spare key in her hand.

It was as if Chanyeol's exhausted body came to life as he saw the love of his life stood before him. The tall rapper was there in her embrace in a second after sending the still stunned Baekhyun to the side, shivering on the couch alone and forgotten.

_"Dara noona..."_

....................

He heard the door of his room was opened and then closed. A footsteps taking someone deeper into his room, but he did nothing. He didn't even take his eyes off of the scenery outside the window. The flickering lights on the road, the cars that still stucked in the traffic eventhough it's already late, the loud horns and swears from the tired drivers, it sucked to be them, but well he didn't care.

"Let's drink this,"

"No, your brother will kill me if we do," Yixing kept his ground and decided to watched the traffic with colorful lights down there was still better than turn around and face a tall blond rapper.

"He won't,"

Yixing heard Kris doing an adjusment with the furniture in his room but he couldn't give a damn, if he did just a single glance, the blond man would never leave his room tonight.

"Come here," a sudden strong grab on his wrist successfully brought him to the center of the room where the small coffee table was put near the foot of his bed and a chair was waiting by its’ other side. "You sit on the bed and I'll take the chair. We'll drink this _chardonnay_ whether you'll like it or not,"

"But your brother-"

"My brother is busy with his new boyfriend," Yixing rolled his eyes when Kris cut him off while pouring the white wine to the tall glasses on the table.

"You know, this is exactly why your brother would never approved me for you," Yixing sighed but sat on his bed nonetheless, crossing his arms over his clothed chest, "You don't even know who is his _girlfriend_ right now,"

Kris put the green bottle on the table, his eyes though, grew wider at the words, "What do you mean? Baekhyun isn't his boyfriend?"

Yixing sighed when he heard his boyfriend and decided to take the glass. He almost gulped everything in a shot, but decided to make his head stayed clear might be the best idea right now. He didn't need alcohol to make his mind foggy, not now when Kris was so in the mood but his brother still gave Yixing the stink eye, "Seriously Kris, you didn't even realize that your brother always had that googly eyes toward Dara?"

"Dara from 2in1? But that chick was like.. 5 years older than my lil' bro-" Kris sounded so confuse. "She's 3 years older than me,"

"This is exactly why Chanyeol never approved of our relationship. You are so into it, which is good and I don't mind, of course, but it make you less.. _aware_ of him."

"What-"

"I know he always felt like you don't love him the way you used to. Or that your attention to him was lesser than it was used to. That your mind always divided between me and him," Kris was looked ready to say something, but Yixing continued, "No, listen to me.."

Kris sighed and took Yixing's hand on the table in his instead of speaking. He gave his boyfriend a light squeeze to let him know that he could continue with his words.

"Kris I know you always love Chanyeol eventhough he was just only your half brother, but it will be better if we take our steps slowly. I really wanted your brother to approve me and our relationship. So please, let's started from this," Yixing waved his free hand in the air as if gesturing of everything, "Let's pay attention to him and his feelings. Let's stop drinking this, this is belong to the both of you," Yixing pointed to the half empty green bottle of _c_ _h_ _ardonnay_ , "Let's start from the small things to the big ones,"

"And let's start it _now_..."

_"Okay... But I still think Chanyeol has a feeling toward Baekhyun, though, Xing..."_

...................


End file.
